calendar: References & Edit History

Additional Reading

General works

An important book on both the development of the calendar and its calculation and possible reform is Alexander Philips, The Calendar: Its History, Structure and Improvement (1921). A shorter and more up-to-date reference is the section on the calendar in the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac (1961, reprinted with amendments, 1977). Also useful are Frank Parise (ed.), The Book of Calendars (1982), a general reference source with a number of conversion tables; and William Matthew O’Neil, Time and the Calendars (1975). Ludwig Rohner, Kalendergeschichte und Kalender (1978), discusses the history of Western calendars. Vladimir V. Tsybulsky, Calendars of Middle East Countries (1979, originally published in Russian, 1976), examines modern calendars.

Babylonian

See references to special studies in E.J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World, 2nd ed. (1980). On astronomy and calendar, see Otto Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, 2nd ed. (1957, reprinted 1969); and his chapter on “Ancient Mathematics and Astronomy,” in the History of Technology, ed. by Charles Singer et al., vol. 1 (1954). On the later Babylonian calendar cycle, see Richard A. Parker and Waldo H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 bcad 75 (1956). Current bibliography is published in the quarterly review Orientalia.

Other Middle Eastern

Assyria

Hildegard Lewy, The Cambridge Ancient History, 3rd ed., vol. 1, pt. 2, ch. 25 (1971); and, on the “week,” see also The Assyrian Dictionary, vol. 5 (1956).

Hittites

Albrecht Götze, Kleinasien, 2nd ed. (1957).

Ugarit

Cyrus H. Gordon,Ugaritic Textbook (1965).

Phoenicians

J. Brian Peckham,The Development of the Late Phoenician Scripts (1968).

Mari

Archives royales de Mari XII, vol. 2 (1964).

Iran

E.J. Bickerman in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, pt. 2, ch. 21 (1983).

Early Egyptian

See Neugebauer (op. cit.); see also his Commentary on the Astronomical Treatise (1969); “The Origin of the Egyptian Calendar,” J. Near Eastern Stud., 1:396–403 (1942); and Otto Neugebauer and Richard A. Parker (eds. and trans.), Egyptian Astronomical Texts, 3 vol. (1960–69). Richard A. Parker, The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (1950), is a good source on the subject—all older material is out of date; his “Lunar Dates of Thutmose III and Ramesses II,” J. Near Eastern Stud., 16:39–43 (1957), is important for later lunar dates. H.E. Winlock, “The Origin of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar,” Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 83:447–64 (1940), is also an important discussion.

Early Greek and Roman

For the octaëteris, see D.R. Dicks, “Solstices, Equinoxes, and the Presocratics,” J. Hellenic Stud., 86:26–40 (1966); see also his Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle (1970). Sterling Dow and Robert F. Healey, A Sacred Calendar of Eleusis (1966), describes a calendar other than that of Athens. Benjamin D. Meritt, The Athenian Year (1961), contains a reconstruction of the Athenian civil years. Jon D. Mikalson, The Sacred and Civil Calendar of the Athenian Year (1975), includes useful bibliographical references. For water clocks, see Otto Neugebauer and H.B. Van Hoesen, Greek Horoscopes (1959, reprinted 1978). William Kendrick Pritchett, Ancient Athenian Calendars on Stone (1963), is good for the Athenian calendar. See also his “Gaming Tables and I.G., I2, 324,” Hesperia, 34:131–147 (1965); and, with Otto Neugebauer, The Calendars of Athens (1947). Also useful are Bickerman (op. cit.); and Alan E. Samuel, Greek and Roman Chronology (1972). For Roman calendars, see Agnes Kirsopp Michels, The Calendar of the Roman Republic (1967, reprinted 1978); and Pierre Brind’amour, Le Calendrier romain (1983).

Jewish

The oldest systematic and complete book on the present fixed Jewish calendar is the work of Abraham bar Hiyya (born c. 1065), known as Savasorda of Barcelona, that bears the title Sefer ha-ʿIbur. A précis of this is contained in a section (ch. 6–10) in Moses Maimonides, Sanctification of the New Moon, trans. from the Hebrew by Solomon Gandz, with an “Astronomical Commentary” by Otto Neugebauer (1956), and supplemented in the “Addenda and Corrigenda” by Ernest Wiesenberg to Moses Maimonides, The Book of Seasons (1961). These treatises from the Code of Maimonides are published as vols. 11 and 14 of the “Yale Judaica Series.” Additional details of the Jewish calendar of both the rabbinic and sectarian varieties have been outlined by Ernest Wiesenberg in “Calendar,” and Jacob Licht in “Sectarian Calendars,” both in Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 5, pp 43–53 (1971).

Indian

The most complete account of the lunar–solar calendar of India may be found in “Indian Calendar,” ch. 5 of the Calendar Reform Committee Report of the Government of India (1955). A good summary of the materials was published by Jean Filliozat in “Notions de chronologie,” an appendix of the encyclopaedic work on Indian history and culture, L’Inde classique, by Louis Renou and Jean Filliozat, vol. 2 (1953).

Chinese

The Chinese calendar is discussed in Joseph Needham and Wang Ling, “Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth,” Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 3 (1959).

Pre-Columbian

The following are useful and authoritative references for the Mayan calendar: Sylvanus G. Morley, An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs (1915, reprinted 1975); and J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction, 3rd ed. (1971), the most complete and authoritative account. See also Floyd G. Lounsbury, “Maya Numeration, Computation, and Calendrical Astronomy,” Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. by Charles Coulston Gillispie et al., vol. 15 (1978); and Miguel León-Portilla, Time and Reality in the Thought of the Maya (1973). For the Mexican calendar: Alfonso Caso, “El Calendario Mexicano,” Memorias de la Academia Mexicana de la Historia, vol. 17, no. 1 (1958); Thirteen Masterpieces of Mexican Archaeology (1938, reprinted 1976); and Los Calendarios prehispanicos (1967). See also Fray Diego Durán, Book of the Gods, and The Ancient Calendar (1971; originally published in Spanish, 1867), containing illustrated explanations of the Aztec calendar. For the Inca and related calendars: Alexander von Humboldt, Vues des Cordillères, et monuments des peuples indigènes de l’Amérique, 2 vol. (1816); Alfred L. Kroeber, “The Chibcha,” in The Handbook of South American Indians, ed. by Julian H. Steward, vol. 2 (1946, reissued 1963); and John Howland Rowe, “Inca Culture at the Time of the Spanish Conquest. Astronomy and the Calendar,” also in The Handbook of South American Indians. See also Reiner Tom Zuidema, “The Sidereal Lunar Calendar of the Incas,” in Archaeoastronomy in the New World, ed. by A.F. Aveni (1982).

For North American Indian chronologies, see the chapter by Cyrus Thomas, “Calendar,” in The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, ed. by Frederick W. Hodge, vol. 1 (1907, reprinted 1979).

Colin Alistair Ronan John D. Schmidt E.J. Bickerman E.J. Wiesenberg Nicola Abdo Ziadeh J.A.B. van Buitenen Chao Lin Tatiana Proskouriakoff

Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Modified link of Web site: JewishEncyclopedia.com - Calendar. Oct 18, 2024
Added discussion of the Chinese zodiac. Aug 26, 2024
Add new Web site: Royal Museums Greenwich - Calendars from around the world. Jul 16, 2024
Added cross-references. Mar 06, 2024
Media added. Jan 26, 2024
Add new Web site: Physics LibreTexts - The Calendar. Dec 01, 2023
Link added. Oct 20, 2023
Add new Web site: Ancient Origins - Why Are There 365 Days in a Year? Organizing Dates with an Ancient Egyptian Calendar. Sep 17, 2023
Add new Web site: Inventors and Inventions - The Calendar. Apr 01, 2022
Corrected typo. Dec 16, 2019
Add new Web site: Australian Calendar - Miriwoong Seasonal Calendar. Aug 22, 2017
Add new Web site: Australian Calendar - Miriwoong Seasonal Calendar. Aug 22, 2017
Add new Web site: Easy Science for Kids - Ancient and Modern Calendar. Jul 11, 2017
Add new Web site: NASA Eclipse Web Site - Calendars. Jul 13, 2016
Add new Web site: History World - History of the Calendar. Jul 12, 2016
Add new Web site: JewishEncyclopedia.com - Calendar. Jul 12, 2016
In Ancient systems section, added "khipu," a variant name for "quipu," and other changes made. Apr 06, 2015
Add new Web site: Wolfram Research - Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy - Calendar. Jan 04, 2013
Add new Web site: JewishEncyclopedia.com - Calendar. Jan 04, 2013
Add new Web site: Buzzle.com - Calendars. Jan 04, 2013
Added images of calendars used by Aztecs, Hebrews, Chinese, and Kiowa. Sep 09, 2009
Added illustrations of Julian, Greorian, feast day, and perpetual calendars. Aug 21, 2009
Added new Web site: National Institute of Standards and Technology - A Walk Through Time - The Evolution of Time Measurement Through the Ages. Nov 14, 2006
Added new Web site: WebExhibits - Calendars Through the Ages. Aug 14, 2006
Added new Web site: Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac - Calendars. Jun 08, 2006
Article revised. Apr 07, 2005
Article revised. Mar 31, 2004
Article revised. Sep 18, 2003
Article revised. May 11, 2001
Article revised. Mar 02, 2001
Article revised. Sep 05, 2000
Article revised. Aug 09, 1999
Article added to new online database. Jul 20, 1998
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